Art Appreciation for the Very Young

By Marjorie

Continuing on my theme of exposing my children to subjects that I am interested in studying (its about halfway through the linked post), my children and I have enjoyed a number of picture books that are a great way to expose young children to the world of art.

Story books:

Squeaking of Art by Monica Wellington features masterpieces that are remade with cartoonish colors, but are still recognizable.  I'm not sure if I've read this to my 6 year-old, but she has spent a lot of time looking at it. 

When Pigasso Meet Mootisse, is a fictionalized account of the meeting of Picasso and Matisse.  It is brightly colored and, as you might guess, the Picasso character is a pig and the Matisse character is a cow.  My daughters have been requesting this book a lot recently.  The story is more about their disagreements with one another's artistic style and how they eventually learn to get along and appreciate each other.

Dinner at Magrittes, this book focuses on a couple of surrealists and the result is a surrealist book!  The narrator is a little boy who lives next to Magritte and gets invited to dinner along with Salvador Dali.  A strange story with pictures derivative of the artists' styles rather than the masterpieces themselves.  Its fun to look for the hidden message on each page. 

Laurence Anholt is the author of several books, including The Magical Garden of Monet and Camille and the Sunflowers. These are cute books about a child who meets an artist. The child differs in each book, sometimes its a boy (Camille, hey, he's French), sometimes its a girl. The illustrations are derivative of the painter's style and also feature some of the famous works.

James Mayhew also has a series of books, such as Katie Meets the Impressionists and Katie Meets the Mona Lisa. Mayhew uses the same child in the various titles. Katie has adventures that involve going into the pictures she sees at the art gallery. The characters Katie meets are the subjects of the various paintings. Katie sometimes meets the artist himself, though this is only incidental to the story (as opposed to Anholt's books where the story centers around the child meeting the artist).

You Can't Take a Balloon into the National Gallery by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Preiss Glasser. This is a wordless book in the format of a comic book about a girl who visits a museum and her balloon that escapes and the adventure that ensues. There are lots of pictures of works of art as well as illustrations of various parts of Washington, D.C. and events (the Cherry Blossom parade, picketing at the White House, a session of Congress, etc.) This book is especially fun for those familiar with the city. This series also includes You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum (New York City) and You Can't Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston).

We have a few books based on paintings by Degas, but I must confess that we haven't read them yet.  Degas, the Ballet, and Me looks like another story where the narrator, a young girl, is dropped into a painting.  However, this seems directed at an older audience as the story is 45 pages long and, while filled with pictures, is also dense with text.  This book would not be read in one sitting by me! This one is a shorter picture book and focuses on the model of a famous sculpture, Marie in Fourth Position.

Non-story Art Books:

Julie Aigner-Clark of Baby Einstein has produced a few art books such as The ABCs of Art and Master Pieces. The ABCs of Art is pretty simple, one painting per letter and a couple of simple questions about the painting. Master Pieces is an oversized board book which features only five paintings, each with several questions and answers in a lift-the-flap format. These books are fine, but I'm not a big fan of Baby Einstein, I'm especially suspicious of them since they've been acquired by Disney (sorry folks, but I fear the Mouse and avoid all things associated with him).  I am also suspicious of books that ask questions, I find it so limiting, as if anything of importance is covered by the questions.  I know the questions are supposed to draw out the thought process, but I think they have the opposite effect, they short-circuit the thought process, limit it, and control it.  Perhaps that will be a topic for another day because it parallels my feelings about school generally. Stay tuned!

Lucy Micklethwait has lots of art books. Micklethwait has a series of I Spy books about art.  I have I Spy an Alphabet in Art, this is very similar to Aigner-Clark's book, one painting per letter, but without any questions. She also offers a few other themes in her I Spy series -- she has an I Spy with transportation in art. A Child's Book of Art is an oversized book, with several paintings per page, grouped by a common theme. A fun book for an adult to peruse, though I can't say that my 6-year-old has shown any interest in it yet.

The Usborne Introduction to Art looks like a good introduction to art history and is currently sitting on the bookshelf.   

I picked up a copy of A History of Britain Through Art by Jillian Powell from Daedalus, a great source for cheap books.  While it’s a bit beyond my kids right now, I like the concept of using art to teach about history and I see that this book is one in a series.

My experience with art board books for babies, like this one, -- this is for the parents, my kids never had any interest and why should they?  I suspect that these books are usually given as gifts, or bought like parents like me, who are looking for something that interests them. (I got mine at a used book sale and got rid of it pretty quickly afterwards.)

Mike Venezia has a series of non-fiction works about artists and composers.  They strike me as a bit textbook-ish and, though I grab them when I see them at used book sales, I don't think we've read any yet.

I'm looking forward to getting The Art Fraud Detective, but my kids are too young for this that I can't seem to justify getting it just yet.

I'd love to hear about any art books you of your children have enjoyed.

Marjorie has been homeschooling her two young daughters for just a few years. Her family chose homeschooling for the freedom it afforded them -- freedom from the school schedule and calendar; freedom to follow her children's interests; freedom from labeling and categorizing her children; and freedom from testing and homework. She enjoys volunteering with her state's inclusive homeschool association and writing on her blog, unclimber.

Comments

[Heidi]

At a local children's museum, I read "Seen Art?" by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

The main character is waiting to meet his friend, Art, and when he asks passersby, "Seen Art?" they kepp showing him different styles in the New York MoMA.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670059862/102-3347306-3329718?v=glance&n=283155

[Jennifer]

Thanks for the links to the good books. I've got some on hold now at the library.